LiquidStack CEO Joe Capes on GigaModular, Direct-to-Chip Cooling, and AI’s Thermal Future

In this episode of the Data Center Frontier Show, Editor-in-Chief Matt Vincent speaks with LiquidStack CEO Joe Capes about the company’s breakthrough GigaModular platform — the industry’s first scalable, modular Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU) purpose-built for direct-to-chip liquid cooling.

With rack densities accelerating beyond 120 kW and headed toward 600 kW, LiquidStack is targeting the real-world requirements of AI data centers while streamlining complexity and future-proofing thermal design.

“AI will keep pushing thermal output to new extremes,” Capes tells DCF. “Data centers need cooling systems that can be easily deployed, managed, and scaled to match heat rejection demands as they rise.”

LiquidStack's new GigaModular CDU, unveiled at the 2025 Datacloud Global Congress in Cannes, delivers up to 10 MW of scalable cooling capacity. It's designed to support single-phase direct-to-chip liquid cooling — a shift from the company’s earlier two-phase immersion roots — via a skidded modular design with a pay-as-you-grow approach. The platform’s flexibility enables deployments at N, N+1, or N+2 resiliency.

“We designed it to be the only CDU our customers will ever need,” Capes says.

Tune in to listen to the whole discussion, which goes on to explore why edge infrastructure and EV adoption will drive the next wave of sector innovation.